Night's Mistress (Children of the Night) (6 page)

After dressing, she went out into the reception area.

Logan was pacing the floor. He came to an abrupt halt when he saw her, then hurried toward her. “What did the doctor say?”

“I’ll tell you later. I have to go downstairs so they can draw some blood.”

Logan lifted one brow. “Are you kidding me?”

“That’s what I said.” Turning back to the receptionist, Mara made an appointment for her next visit.

“A blood test,” Logan muttered as they took the elevator down to the lab. “What’s the cup for?”

“You don’t need to know.”

The elevator doors opened into a large room that reminded Logan of a bank vault. “Do you suppose he has vampires working down here?”

“How should I know?” Mara replied irritably. There could be a hundred vampires in the building and she would never know it. When they passed a wastebasket, she tossed the cup inside.

“You know, this might not be a bad place to work,” Logan remarked as they walked down a long gray corridor. “You could draw blood for lab tests, and take a little extra for yourself.”

“Very funny.”

A heavy-set woman with orange hair smiled at them when they reached the lab. “May I help you?”

Mara handed the woman the piece of paper the doctor had given her.

The woman glanced at it and wrote something down on a clipboard. “Just follow me. This will only take a minute.”

After sending a worried look at Logan, Mara followed the woman into a small room. The walls were pale green, lined with glass-fronted cupboards. Mara sat in the chair the woman indicated and rolled up her sleeve.

“Here,” the woman said, giving her a square of foam rubber. “Squeeze that for me.”

“Why?”

“It’ll bring your veins up. That’s right.” The technician wrapped a strip of rubber around Mara’s arm, then inserted a needle.

Mara stared at the blood that began to fill the syringe. In the past, her blood had always been dark red; now it was a much brighter hue. Mortal blood. Feeling suddenly queasy at the sight, she turned her head away.

“You’re not going to faint on me, are you?” the woman asked, worry evident in her tone.

“No.”

“We’re just about done,” the woman said. “You’re not allergic to paper tape, are you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” the woman said cheerfully. After removing the needle, she placed a cotton ball over the tiny wound, then covered it with a strip of tape. “Doctor will call you with the results in a few days.”

With a nod, Mara left the room.

“How was it?” Logan asked curiously.

“Horrible, like everything else.”

He slipped his arm around her waist and gave her a sympathetic hug as they headed for the exit. “Sorry, love.”

“It’s not your fault. Was she a vampire?”

“Yeah, a fairly old one.”

“And the receptionist upstairs?”

“No, she’s human. The nurse was a fledgling, not more than a few months old.” He glanced at her, frowning. “Couldn’t you tell?”

“No.” She stared into the distance a moment before asking, “Have you ever wanted to be human again?”

He considered the question a moment, then shook his head. “No. So, what did the doctor say? What’s making you sick?”

“I’ll tell you in the car. You’ll never believe it.” She couldn’t believe it, either.

Neither did Logan when she told him.

“Pregnant?” He pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street. “How in the hell can you be pregnant?”

“I don’t know. Neither does the doctor.” She gazed out the window. “Logan, I’ve lost most of my powers. When I was with the doctor, I couldn’t tell if he was human or one of us. Even with you . . . I can’t feel the bond between us anymore.”

His hand tightened on the steering wheel. “I know.” The bond no longer went both ways, but because of the blood they had shared, he could still read her mind if he chose to do so, could sense her proximity even when they were apart.

“I don’t want to be mortal again!” she exclaimed. “I don’t want a baby. A baby! What do I know about taking care of a baby?”

“You don’t have to have it if you don’t want it.”

She stared at him. He was talking about an abortion. It was an ugly word, and an ugly deed. She knew little about childbirth, but she had watched a documentary about abortion and wondered how anyone could kill a living fetus. She had done some brutal things in the course of her existence, but she had never preyed upon the young or the helpless. Or the unborn.

Placing her hand over her stomach, she tried to imagine a child growing inside her womb. Kyle’s child. A little boy with her black hair and Kyle’s gray eyes. “No, not that.” She couldn’t kill her own child.

“What are you going to do, then?”

“I don’t know.”

She didn’t want to be human again, didn’t know how to be human. She knew there were vampires who hated what they were, who spent their entire existence lamenting their lost humanity. They were among the most miserable creatures she had ever known. She had never been one of them. Once she’d accepted what had happened to her, she had made the most of it. True, she had killed her sire, not for turning her against her will, but for abandoning her once the deed had been done.

Human again. How could she survive without her preternatural powers? Others of her kind had envied her strength and her longevity. In the course of her existence, she had made a good number of enemies. Secure in her strength, knowing she was virtually indestructible, she had blithely said and done as she pleased and to hell with the consequences. But now . . . now she had little supernatural strength. She was nearly as vulnerable as any mortal female. Even Ramsden had sensed it. In time, would she lose what little preternatural power she had left?

She glanced at Logan. Should she have confided in him? Was she being foolish to trust him? She had never trusted anyone. How could she start now, when she was weak, helpless? If she wanted to survive, she was going to have to consider everyone her enemy. And what about her doctor? Dared she trust him? Vampires were notoriously suspicious of their own kind, jealous of their hunting grounds, protective of their lairs.

She wondered how many of those she had turned were still alive, how many men she had thoughtlessly offended might still carry a grudge.

She shrugged off her fears. Worrying wouldn’t solve anything. The world was a big place. She had rarely run into any of the men she had turned.

Logan pulled into her driveway and cut the engine, then turned to face her. “Do you know who the father is?”

“Of course!”

He lifted one brow. “So, are you gonna tell me his name?”

She shook her head. “You don’t know him.”

“But he’s human?”

“That’s a stupid question! Of course he is.”

“So, where is he?”

“I don’t know.”

“Does he know about the baby?”

“No. And I’m not going to tell him,” she said, anticipating his next question. “Can we not talk about this right now?”

Even though the bond between them was gone, Logan had no trouble reading her thoughts. She was worried, confused, and more distrustful than ever. He could hear the rapid beat of her heart, smell the panic she was trying to hide. He supposed he couldn’t blame her. She was treading where no vampire had journeyed before. It was bound to be disturbing. As for losing her powers, he couldn’t begin to imagine what that would be like, could scarcely remember what it had been like to walk the earth as a mortal man.

Resting his arm along the back of her seat, he lightly stroked her hair. “You’ve nothing to fear from me. You know that, don’t you?”

“I don’t know anything anymore,” she replied sullenly. “I just want this to be over!”

“Come on, let’s go inside.”

Taking the key from the ignition, Logan got out of the car. Opening her door, he offered her his hand, felt a brief flare of annoyance when she hesitated before placing her palm in his. He told himself to be patient. He had loved her from the moment they met, and that hadn’t changed. He knew she was fond of him; in her own way, she might even love him. But things were different now. For the first time in their long acquaintance,
she
needed
him
. And she didn’t like it one little bit.

“Are you going to be all right?” he asked.

“How should I know? This has never happened to me before.”

“Maybe you should come home with me.”

“Not tonight.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” She needed to be alone, to come to terms with what was happening to her. Mortal. Pregnant. Impossible. “Thank you for your help.”

“I still think you should come home with me tonight.”

“I need some time alone, time to sort all this out.”

Logan nodded. He could understand that, but he didn’t like the idea of leaving her alone, not now, when she was as vulnerable as a new fledgling. “I’ll see you tomorrow night. If you need me before then, give me a call.”

“Yes, I will.” She stood on the front porch, watching as he got into his car and drove away.

She was pregnant. It had never occurred to her to ask Kyle to take precautions, but why would it? Vampires couldn’t reproduce. Everyone knew that. Only, she wasn’t a true vampire anymore.

She went inside, careful to lock the door behind her. Fear was a new emotion, one she instantly despised. But she was safe in her house. She had never invited any of the Undead into this place. As long as she stayed inside at night, she would be safe from most of the vampire community. To her knowledge, there was only a handful of vampires who were old enough and strong enough to endure the sun’s light. She didn’t think she had anything to fear from Roshan’s family, but what if there were others who could walk in the daylight that she didn’t know about? Secrets were hard to maintain in the vampire community, but not impossible. Gossip spread like wildfire. She didn’t know how many of her enemies still existed. If any of them learned of her vulnerability, she would be helpless to defend herself.

Maybe she was worrying for nothing. Maybe she wasn’t losing her powers. Going into the living room, she stood in front of the hearth and willed the fire to light. Nothing happened.

She closed her eyes and tried to find her link to Rane. Nothing. It was the same with Rafe and Vince and Roshan. She didn’t know why her failures surprised her. If she could no longer feel her bond to Logan, a connection that was older and stronger than her bond to any of the others of her kind, then it was a safe bet that her link to the Cordova family had vanished, as well.

She tried to dissolve into mist, only to blink back tears of bitter frustration when nothing happened.

Going to the window, she stared out into the night. Without her preternatural powers, the world seemed dull and quiet. As a vampire, she had seen colors and textures clearly. Day or night, it didn’t matter, the world had been bright, the colors vibrant and alive. Once, she had been able to hear the flutter of a moth’s wings, the stirring of birds in their nests, but no more. She felt empty, adrift, cut off from all that had once been familiar.

Mortal,
she thought.
I’m a pregnant mortal woman with no family, and no one I dare trust, including the baby’s father!

Sinking down on the floor, she folded her arms over her belly and rocked back and forth. If only she had never revealed her true nature to Kyle. She could have stayed with him until the baby was born, and then, with him none the wiser as to her true nature, she could have moved on and left him to raise the baby. Kyle was a good man, strong yet gentle. He would have made a good father.

She wiped the tears from her eyes. Maybe it would still work. If he had truly loved her, he would be happy that she was now mortal, she thought, and then frowned. Maybe without her vampire allure, he would look at her and feel nothing at all.

She remembered the way he had stared at her when she’d told him what she was, the revulsion in his eyes when she revealed her true nature. Did she want to bind herself to a man who had looked at her like that? Would she ever feel safe with him? Would he even consider caring for a child he had created with a woman he thought of as a monster, a child that might be half vampire?

A baby . . . She moaned in despair.

What was she going to do with a baby?

 

It took Kyle three weeks to find a vampire hunter. It would have taken a lot less time if he had just looked online, but he was an artist, not a computer geek, and searching the Web hadn’t occurred to him until he had exhausted all other search avenues.

The hunter agreed to meet him at his place the following night. The doorbell rang at seven o’clock sharp.

“Right on time,” Kyle murmured as he opened the door.

Kyle wasn’t sure what a vampire hunter should look like, but he had never expected a woman. Especially a woman who stood five-foot-nothing, with pale blond hair, deep blue eyes, and a beguiling dimple in her right cheek.

“You’re the hunter?” He doubted if she weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet.

“Lou McDonald at your service, Mr. Bowden. May I come in?”

He blinked at her. Clad in a pair of loose-fitting gray trousers and a bulky white sweater, she looked completely harmless. “You’re Lou?”

“Short for Louise.” She lifted one brow. “May I come in?”

“What? Oh, sure.” He stepped back so she could enter the apartment, then closed the door behind her. “Make yourself at home.”

She glanced around the room before taking a seat on the sofa. He wondered what she’d expected to find, then decided that, considering her line of work, she was probably just naturally cautious.

“Can I get you anything?” he asked. “Coffee? Tea? Soda?”

“Nothing, thank you.”

Kyle sat in the overstuffed chair across from the sofa. This had to be a joke. She couldn’t be more than twenty-five years old.

Lou reached into her bag and withdrew a small red notebook and a pen. “You said you’re looking for a vampire. I’ll need a name, if you have it.”

“Mara.”

Lou’s eyes widened. “Mara? You don’t mean the one they call the Queen of the Vampires?”

Kyle stared at the hunter. Queen of the Vampires? Was she kidding? “Do you know her?”

“I know of her. Why are you looking for her?”

“Does it matter?”

“Not really. Do you have any idea where she might be?”

He rubbed a hand across his jaw, suddenly conscious of the fact that he hadn’t shaved in days. “Last time I saw her, she was in Oregon. How old are you?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You heard me.”

“I’ll be twenty-nine next month.”

“How long have you been a hunter?”

“Ten years. I’ve made twenty-eight confirmed kills, and I don’t come cheap.”

“I was expecting someone a little older and more experienced . . . a little more . . .”

“You were expecting some kind of big macho man,” she said dryly, “just like everyone else.”

“That’s why you list yourself as Lou, isn’t it? So people will think you’re a man.”

She didn’t deny it.

“Can you find Mara?”

“I won’t know until I try.”

“I don’t want her dead.”

“Excuse me?”

“I don’t want her dead. I just want you to find her.”

“I’m not a private eye, Mr. Bowden, I’m a hunter. I hunt vampires and I destroy them.”

“I’m willing to make it worth your while. Anyway, from what I hear, she can’t be destroyed.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that, too,” Lou replied. “But every living thing can be killed, one way or another.”

“I thought vampires were already dead.”

“Dead or destroyed, it means the same thing. No more vampire.”

“Yeah, well, like I said, I want her alive. So if you want to work for me, it’ll have to be on my terms.”

“Very well, but it will cost you double my usual rate, and I’ll be wanting half up front.”

Kyle nodded. “All right.”

She held out her hand. “Looks like we have a deal.”